home made shop heaters

I have a 30 X 40 Pole Barn Shop with 6 inches of insulation in the attic and a metal ceiling. I use a older word burning furnace with a thermostat and ductwork down the center of the shop.

I tried gravity feed oil into the wood fire. It works for awhile, but have problems with the small soft copper tubing I used to drip from the top of stovebox. It keeps cloging up. I saw several others on this thread using a gravity drip into the stove.

What type and size of tubing are people using for the drip tube in the stovebox? I would like to burn some used oil and save a little wood.

 

Flatford39 - that is the most well thought out suggestion I've read on here ever. I'm a paranoid firebug and while I NEED heat in the winter (work is the best jacket!?!? Sheeeit.)
I'm afraid to use anything with an open flame. I need the extra space too and love the idea of keeping myself and my shit in one whole unburned piece to boot.
Looks like I know what I'll be building this summer. Thanks.

 

Any specifics on this unit?

 

I use this to knock the chill off

 

We went big to avoid the problem of plugging. 1/2 inch galvanized pipe.

Neal

 

Not that many cold days, When it is we have a 5 gallon can with the top cut off and 3 1" tubing legs. 2 gallons of alcahol left over from the sprint car warms the the 50 X 100 nicely. No fumes no smell just nice heat, Oh did says it's burning now!!! Ted

 

Here,s mine made from an old propane bottle it warms my 20 x 30 shop up nice, its got quite an appetite for wood at the moment this will hopefully change when I fit the valve in the picture so that it can draw air from outside and I will be able to control the airflow.Total cost so far £6 and that was for the paint.Runs with the door closed and is never left unattended.

 

Gas grills with the lid open work well too. Just set it on low and lay your tools out on the grates!
My buddy and I actually did this when we were teenagers (16) working to replace a timing belt on a non-HAMB car in the middle of winter. His Mom about shit a brick when she came out to see how we were doing and saw how we were "heating" the garage. "DO YOU REALIZE YOU COULD DIE OF CARBON MINOXIDE POISONING BY DOING THAT!?????!?!?!?!?" was all she said in a stern voice.
I guess thats why we were were both complaining about being tired while working.....

 

You can buy the 55 gallon stove kit at menards now.
BE WARY!!!!!Not all 55 gallon drums are created equal, I heard of one that melted through and burnt a guys house down. personally I dont have room for a heat producing stove in my garage.
Another thing to watch out for...
While painting a neighbors mercedes years ago, we kept getting fish eyes in the paint. weeks later he found out that it was from the kerosene heater....

 

Just got back from visting an old feller I know, when I asked him why his shop looked different, new drywall, partitioned wall missing etc, he said .....Fire. The wood stove set the place ablaze, didn't ask any particulars, but he lost a real nice 40 Lasalle, and there were a couple other cars that were heat damaged . Not to mention all the water damage to the machinery, lathes, mill and so on from the local Fire Dept. doing thier job. He had insurance and I think that helped a little, but shit is there alot of cleaning to do. I believe he had to sign a paper with the insurance company that there will be no more open flame heat in there.

 

one thing to remember..if you have any..yes any heater in your garage or shop other than a closed fire box with air draw from out side ..like a UL listed high efficiancy furnace, gas or propane fuel. Do Not Leave it Un attended!!!!

wood burners are to heat while you are there to keep an eye on them..propane fired radiant heaters attached to propane bottles can tip over or flair up at times with liquid propane.

there is really only one safe way to heat when not there to monitor the operation of the unit, and that is with a furnace like you would use in your home or those gas fed shop heaters that have a closed firebox.

anyone who uses other sources for heat and doesnt babysit them, may end up wishing they had.

I have a large wood burning stove in my shop, but I dont leave it alone..im in there when its running, and if i leave..it is snuffed out

 

Any specifics on this unit?

Somewhere on my desk i have a set of plans drawn up. I seee if I can find them when I clean it off. It works well enough they ran a body and paint shop year round using only this for heat. Just in case some one thought it was only like a barrel stove. It isnt it is complete even warm in every corrner of the shop no matter what the outside temp is or how well the insulation is. When on thromostat control it will hold within about 1 to 1.5 degrees F variation. On manual it is well. WARMMMMMMMM!

 

And for those with south facing windows 6 of these will heat a house in bright sunlight so garage as well. These are my own invention too. Made from an opened black stove pipe and set on a 2x6 stand at a 2 degree angle they just sit in the windows. A skeptic asked me one day how hot do they ACTUALLY run in direct sunlight? i didnt know so i bought a magnetic thermometer and stuck it on the back side . They run consistantly at 43 C (about 106F) in direct sunlight and in semi good sunlight still maintain over 85F degrees. This is a different heat. Seems to warm even your bones and when the sun hits them you can feel it anywhere in the house in a few minutes. I made some for my buddies machine shop as well.
Feel free to make some but I would respectfully ask you write Dolmetsch on them somewhere because they are Dolmetsch heaters. We have used them now about 6 years and they have saved us thousands on Oil for the house. No reason why they cant heat a shop with windows facing south as well. They only work in winter as the angle of the sun gets too high in late spring but then it doesnt matter anyway.
Don

 

Its 72 here today!!! how do you cool your shops

 

thats pretty cool....what do you do for places like michigan that only see sunlight in the summer...?(really its always overcast in the winter)
and at night when most guys get to work on their stuff

 

I was reading this thread, and then this response; then I noticed the avatar, "torchmen49"; which came first, the name or the flame? But, seriously, I just lost an overloaded circuit due to too many electric heaters being plugged into it. Got to find something cheaper/easier/safer. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Well of course they didnt work at night!
Michigan is no different than Ontario . In fact they are kissin cousins with a long common border. These are supplimetary and will cut costs signfcantly of the length of the winter because when there is sun the take over. Even if that was only 30 % it is still signficant saving in heating cost. Sun just came out here .I could feel it almost instantly.
I am hoping for a government grant so we can develop the "black light" version and have heat all night. Not really but i couldnt resist that. A building loses about 1 degree per hour F if it is well insulated
don

 

My opinion is that the words 'homemade' and 'heaters' belong together as much as 'DIY' and 'Vasectomy'
Bob

 

Dolmetsch, Now thats pretty cool,...did you ever think of some way for that to heat water? With some sort of storage system you could continue to heat after the sun goes down. I think solar has great potential,...now if only the sun would shine!

 

You know my floor in the strawshop stays pretty warm? But I would prob run lines in it if I did it again. I simply did not have time to run em as we poured the floor to beat a huge price increase in concrete. I am installing my woodstove as emeergency backup in case we lose power.

 

well as for my weather..we seldom get sunshine in the winter.not to mention the wintertime has less light hours, if it even were to shine.And i dont have any windows in my shop..(it keeps the theifs from breaking them out and stealin shit)..but hey cool idea, and i can see how it would work as supplimental heat..kinda like a radiant sun catcher..
but as for keeping or delivering enough heat to satisfy my 30x32 x 12 foot ceiling ..i would have to have a 30x12' window on the south side lined with these and thats just not practical..the window in itself would produce some warming due to radiation,
maybe not a bad fall back system for some

 

Yea...I got the idea from you!!! How's your home working out?

 

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/STEVEN%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <woNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> The best wood burner I ever had was a modified barrel stove. Take 55 gallon drum with a removable head, put a 35 gallon drum inside. The two drums are attached at the heads by the bolts that hold the stove kit door to the drums. Cut a hole in the back of the 55 gallon drum to mount an old furnace fan and another in the front for the hot air to come out of. Works greate.

 

It hasnt been mentioned here yet, however a friend of mine built his new garage with hydronic heat tubes in the floor. Instead of a boiler, he uses a simple 50 gallon hot water heater with a pump and a simple programmable controller. Keeps his shop at 50 all winter in WI for about $40/month extra on his gas bill. The key is he has 8" of insullation in the walls and 10" in the cieling.

 

WISHED I had a heater........I get sick of having on 2 layers of clothing and still getting and catching a cold........OH SUMMER TIME.............

 

My old shop in Ventura had all the engines lined up in front of the window.
In the day they would heat up from the sun,
and at night you could feel the heat of the engines, seriously!


TP

 

I love this stuff.
Zibo.. that's neat "thermal mass". Plastic jugs of water do the same type of thing but don't look as cool.
Dolmetsch... passive solar is way cool. I built my house facing 10 degrees west of south (that's close to optimum for passive solar gain for my area). Windows on the south and a long roof help warm the house up really easily and the roof overhangs enough to provide shade in the windows in summer but not stop the low winter sun from shining in.
The guy who supplies me with heating oil has been amazed for years at how little oil I go through.
As for passive vs active solar.... watch the cost/return thingy.
A "free" 10% increase in heat is better than a costly 30% of heat. I've seen people spend big money expecting a lot and be very disappointed.
I took a single pain window (not proper) in it's frame (not proper) and stuck a piece of tar-paper (roofing felt, tarred-felt, whatever you call it in your area) and used it as the collector (SO not proper). Then I placed a piece of chipboard (again... whatever you call it where you are) as the backing (not proper) and drilled two 4" (all I had for hole-saws) holes cross-cornered (not proper size) and stuck it in the sun.
The heat started pouring out!
FREE!
Was it big heat? Not really.
But it was FREE. ALL free.
Now THAT'S proper.
A 12 volt computer fan forced it out nicely. If you have a solar-electric (PV) cell to drive the fan it's perfect. The fan only comes on when there is sun and you only need the fan where there is sun. Sounds proper to me! No thermostat or battery needed.
I've studied and messed with this stuff for years (just on my own, no training) and had a ball.
I guess this discussion would be more for the Garage Journal but the stuff I've done isn't pretty and is really cheap so the good folks there might not put it in their nice garages. And some of them have some beauties. Better than a lot of homes. Wish I had a nice one.
Yup. Cheap and easy.
Just like me.
Sorry for the long post. I get a kick out of making something out of very little.
I'll go to bed now and dream of being warm in my garage while working on my A.

 

Lucky bastard,
Its over 100 here today (38 odd deg C)

 

Had a double walled woodstove with a fan and ductwork to go to the upstairs of my garage and all that was needed to finish was a section of chimney pipe when the insurance co. came by and said, "uh, NO!" Out it all came, and this winter I am on here instead of in the garage. I will try to make an outdoor system using the double wall with a cold air return tube, and hope for the best. I was told atleast 30 feet from the structure. A friend's dad used one of those sealed tight powerline (MP&L) buildings (about the size of a biffy) with the wood stove inside and direct tubes running into the garage one high, one low. Works slick.

Only ask that it works for about 5 years when I have my new shop finished....which'll be in-floor.

 

well what we did to burn wood. was take an old propane tank .. the ones that sat outside that stored the propane in.

well we cut her in half ... (after all the propane leaked out) and then made a 1/4 plate door for the front of it. Complete with peek-a-boo holes in the door. Welded some pipe on the bottom for legs so it stands about yay high.

made a baffle in the top of the tank. and then made a top piece as a baffle to let the smoke roll around in and then up to another tank (about 2 feet in diameter with baffles) above the big propane tank. then straight up with the chimney. Would take pics but i dont have a camera. it heats a 30 X 30 shop without insulation to start getting naked temperatures even when its negative 20 degrees celsius outside.

our wood supply is. Cut right now and let it sit for 3 years and then we will brun it. So a stack is outside in the back 50. We burn all our garbage from the house in it along with all my grandmas garbage ... and the barn. We also burn that used motor oil in it. The darn thing has gotten so hot at times that it warped the door but the heat is incredible when burning solid oak.